News International's Al Trivino and Gordon Beckett, the Sunday Times' head of design, have unveiled their new design for the Sunday Times, which has become full-colour for the first time in its 186-year history.

As well as the move to full-colour, the redesign features a bespoke typeface, Sunday Times Modern, for headlines in the main news section. In an open letter to readers, Sunday Times editor John Witherow comments: "We think it is a bolder, fresher headline face than the old Century which served us well for many years."

Body copy for all sections apart from certain supplements has changed to Greta, while headlines in Sport, Business, News Review and the supplements are in Flama.

Meanwhile, the redesign features increased emphasis on fact boxes, graphs and other graphics. Sections are colour-coded, and different types of article within the main section are flagged up through colour codes-news stories have blue liveries, comment is green and special reports are red. "We hope that the use of colour makes the paper easier to navigate," comments Witherow in yesterday's launch edition.

The changes are largely due to the recent move to state-of-the-art printing facilities in Broxbourne, just outside the M25 and at Knowsley, near Liverpool.

In the paper, Witherow says: "Change on a paper is never easy; everyone has strong views on how their newspaper should look. This paper has often been in the forefront of innovation and at times readers have reacted with irritation or disdain at each new development." He notes that care has been taken not to substantially change the architecture of the paper – "Perhaps most important of all, the crosswords remain in their usual berths."

The redesign was overseen by Tristan Davies, the former editor of the Independent on Sunday, who worked with Trivino and Beckett on the project.